We May Be Losing a Natalie, But We May Be Getting a Kathie Lee

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When Natalie Morales announced on the Today show this morning that she was pregnant again, we were torn. On the one hand, we love Natalie Morales with all of our hearts (despite her participation in the soul-crushing fourth hour of the show) and think that the higher the percentage of babies in the world that have her for a mom, the better. On the other hand, this means that she’ll probably have to sit out the network’s sure-to-be-bonkers coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics in August, which saddens us. We were dying to see her forced into a synchronized-swimming competition with Matt or pulling Al around the streets of Beijing in a rickshaw. Our minds raced with questions — who would pick up the slack for her? Giada De Laurentiis? The sometime Today co-host didn’t seem to work out (plus she also got pregnant), so we haven’t seen her in a while. Tiki Barber? The delightful Amy Robach? The less delightful Jenna Wolfe? Notquite.

It turns out that Todayhas been in talks with Kathie Lee Gifford to join as an extra host of the fourth hour of the show. Which means she probably is getting ready to take over Natalie’s duties when she goes on maternity leave. A Today spokesman told TVNewser, “We think Kathie Lee Gifford is a tremendous talent, but we have nothing to announce.” Newsdayis delighted at the prospect of having Kathie’s legendary backstage antics brought to the NBC studios, but we’re not so sure we’re excited. Can’t Natalie just stay on right through her labor? That fourth hour is all about babies, food, weight loss, and vaginas anyway. It’s bizarre that it doesn’t have a pregnant hostalready.